Mama Beech

At the risk of sounding even older than I actually am "We have way more storms than we uses to"! Which may or may not be statistically true, but definitely a lot more have impacted our Forest School since 2021 than before. (Red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning!) Often, these charge in overnight or at weekends leaving me tip-toeing onto site to see what damage has been done. Frequently they gather pace at 4pm leaving the school day clear for sessions, and sometimes, the gods are smiling and they blow themselves out in the morning before the first class is due on site! They always make their mark though. Torn parachutes, flapping tarps, tree debris everywhere, litter blown in, on one occasion a 6ft trampolines rolling across the school. Field... There's the risk assessment required to ensure the site is fit for use, and damage to manage or remove. We're never totally unscathed! Sitting on a plateau at the edge of the South Downs doesn't help. The wind rush...

That's it! Forest School sessions ended this week. Another academic year is over & out for us.  The children and staff are still in for a few days, but now is our time for planning next year, catching up on admin, a few 'gardening' duties, maintenance, repair, and an opportunity to reflect on what we have achieved and how we plan to build on it. As usual the last week of term was a Celebration Week to round off 6 weeks of sessions. Usually this requires a campfire, 400 marshmallows to toast, gallons of hot chocolate, half the biscuit aisle from the supermarket, and the delicate process of 'make your own' marshmallow sandwich task for all classes! This time, it did not.  With the heat in South East England not only being high (for us!) and hotter predicted, we made the decision not to have campfires based on a number of factors: It is definitely hot enough! We do not to be warmed up any further. I wanted basecamp to be a shaded respite from the heat. Lack of rain...

Last week I pondered how bad campfires actually are for our health. The effect on both the Forest School Leaders spending a lot of time alongside them breathing in heated air, smoke, particles, and any number of possible unknown toxins, and on the developing lungs of children in our care. There are ways to mitigate risks, and a good risk/benefit analysis should make how we practice as safe as we can. There is no way to totally eliminate the pollution of our bodies without saying no to fires completely. The decision has to be up to the individual - but I do think we are heading towards participation being something we need informed parental agreement for. We also need to consider the effect on both our immediate environment and how it affects our carbon footprint. I have a love of woodland... and hills... and mountains... and the coast... and nature... being outside in general! It's one of the reasons I do my job. At home, I try to be as environmentally friendly as I can, in what I...

A campfire is a treat at Chartham.  We don't have one every session even when the weather is cold. There are a few reasons for this, the main one being ratios! when we have a campfire I cannot leave the fire pit area, which has at times meant one TA left to supervise 20+ children! Then there's the time constraint. Often I have two classes in a morning, each session lasting approximately 60 minutes. This may mean keeping a fire going constantly as dampening it down after session one will make setting one for session two difficult! There is also the cost. With 16 classes a week we would need to buy in a minimum of £10 of logs a week, plus kindling... it adds up quickly. Yes, we have some trees and some woodland, but not enough to sustain campfires all week, all term, all year. Importantly, there are other considerations. To the environment for one, and to the participants also. There is a lot of study surrounding the negative effects of smoke inhalation. This US article by Kurt R...

I spend a lot of time trying to ensure the children are capable of risk assessing for themselves. We do have a comprehensive Risk Assessment as well as a Risk Management document, but once in Forest School, this is of little use to the actual children. It's not something I can read allowed to a group so they understand how to stay safe! I try to make sure that the children understand the basics. We revisit them each week and most of the school can recite them verbatim! This however can make them routine and something that is said  but not necessarily adhered to. The most basic concept I try to communicate is this: 'Who is the first person to keep you safe in Forest School?' This at first brings answers such as 'YOU!', or 'the grown ups', or 'the teacher!'. They're usually shocked when I tell them: 'No. YOU! You are the first person to keep YOU safe!' 'When you see a stinging nettle do you choose to grab it, or do you leave it alone an...

Like in all practices, in Forest School, how you do things alters over time. Some of it is a slow evolution as your own confidence grows, a lot of it is simple trial and error, and much of it varies between groups you work with. The better you know the children in your sessions, the more you tailor what you are offering to them. For a while, I thought I only aimed what I offered based on the age group I had at Basecamp, but it's become increasingly obvious over the years that it's more to do with the experiences the children bring to sessions. Moving from an urban setting to a significantly more 'rural' one meant some surprising adaptations for me, the main one being how the pupils at school took their trees and open spaces for granted. They could easily be immersed in nature just a block or two from their front doors, but this didn't mean they appreciated it or treated green spaces with respect. In London, the children cherished their time in the woods and were eag...

Lockdown has been devastating for a lot of Outdoor Learning providers, forest schools are just a small section of sports and activity clubs/events that are on hold right now. The regulations make it either logistically impossible or financially difficult for many of them to open. Schools that are signed up to providers, or employ staff to facilitate outdoor learning on school grounds are in a very lucky position. Their sites remain open and outdoor learning is easier to run within their own risk assessments while catering for Vulnerable/Key Worker children.  Can you spot the free range children in this picture? But normal service has not been resumed ! In January 2020 we had three 2hr long full sessions of Forest School running per week. We also had a gardening club, and assorted outside interventions that meant various small groups were working on the Royal Forestry Society Junior Forester Award , the RSPB Wild Challenges , the RHS Campaign for School Gardens , and the Woodland...